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SOUL SHADOWS 







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SOUL SHADOWS 

SONGS AND SONNETS 



BY 



ROSE M. DE VAUX-ROYER 



AUTHOR OF 



'Long Distance Telepathy" 
"Influence TMepathique" 



NEW YORK 

THE BOOKERY 

MCMXIII 






T5 3? 



Copyright, 1913 

by the Author 

Rose M. de Vaux-Royer 



[Printed in the United States of America] 
All Rights Reserved 



€C!,A330704 



Tarn corde quam manu 
[As much by the heart as with the hand] 



in the spirit 

of loyalty and love 

i dedicate this book to the 

Cameo Club 



Expression is life, and repression is death to faculty, and the 
only death we need believe in. Life is one continuous radiant 
expression, and we are all creators, chiseling the clear-cut en- 
semble of our lives into the perfect cameo of our own ideals. 



FOREWORD 

Many of the verses in this volume have been published 
in the newspapers and magazines of Washington, San 
Francisco, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadel- 
phia, Paris and other places. 

These collected thoughts might be called episodes on 
life's highway, except they are not all my actual ex- 
periences, but came from out the silence, unsolicited. 

"Enormous shuttles of the dark! 
That weave the everlasting dream." 

To some, life is translated through poetry. It is the 
song in the heart that is heard above the tumult and 
tempest of everyday affairs. Hudson Maxim says, in 
his "Science of Poetry," that "The imagination must be 
enlisted in the understanding of poetry which neces- 
sarily involves a creative act, an act of invention and 
an exercise of the imagination for the comprehension of 
the expression." 

I have dared to give these out first hand, as they 
came to me, in their earliest dress, unadorned. 

R. M. de V-R. 



jFacing tfte infinite 

Facing the Infimte! we arise 

Facing the Infinite; who shall say 
Our sun goes down at the close of day 

If we travel with the skies? 

Time is not when action shall cease! 

Time is not when the circle ends; 

Hasten ye slothful oneSy make amends; 
Of Eternity ask release! 

Mother of mystery! Child of Life! 

The midnight stars are piercing through- 
All that was hidden, revealed to view — 

The temples of Earth, and its strife. 

Living by faith in the lifted prayer — 
Faith that restores us the riven dream — 
Passing the ships on the Lethean stream. 

Our Father reigns everywhere! 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

To THE Master Mind 13 

Resurrection 14< 

From the Beyond 15 

Calling 1^ 

To THE Dandelion 1"^ 

To A Field Poppy 18 

Concrete Ideals 19 

Autumn Notes 20 

Pastorale 21 

Materialism 22 

A Fancy 23 

Unstrung 24 

Aspiration 25 

Affinity ^^ 

The Invisible Presence 27 

Consecration 28 

Reciprocity 29 

Reconciliation 30 

Life's Phases 31 

Compensation 32 

To A Philosophical Friend 33 

The Universal Essence 34 

Dead Love 36 

The Loom of Life 37 

To AN Easter Lily 39 

Poetic Perception 40 

Sometime 4-1 

The Law of Opposites 42 

Dream Faces 44 

Birth of the Rose . 45 

"La Mort de L'Amour" 46 

Reassurance 48 

Parting 49 

Within ^^ 

To A Wild Ross 51 



PAGE 

Heart Hunger 52 

Transformation 53 

Crepuscule 54 

Courage Undying 55 

Masques 56 

At the Play 57 

Attraction 59 

Wild Roses 60 

Retrospection .... 61 

Requiem 63 

Change 63 

Revelation 64 

At Flood Tide 65 

Extract from Ballad to the Flowers .... 66 

The Universal Spirit 67 

"Aimer" 69 

In Absence 70 

Abnegation 72 

Determination 73 

Ambition 74 

Nightfall at Oscawana 76 

Spring Showers 77 

June 78 

The Will of Love 79 

Love's Message 80 

Destruction of the Temple 81 

Renunciation 82 

Idol Affections 83 

Oscawana 84 

Peace 85 

Memory's Visions 87 

Heredity 89 

The Call of Spring 90 

Consummation 91 

Aftermath 92 

Non-Resistance 94 

Chanson 95 

Love's Vision 96 

The Shadowy Third 97 

Petite Papillon 98 

Telepathy 99 



SOUL SHADOWS 



Co tfte 9ia0ter Qgittli 

AKE us to hear Thy call through every plan ; 
In each low note ascending as Thy word 
(Intoning harmonies within, unheard), 
That issues from the striving heart of man. 

O let us sound a chord as deep and true 

As rings adown the hymns of morning stars ! 
When earth awakens — breaks her prison bars — 

May bards of songs celestial bear us through. 

And let us learn to see in every eye 

Where unshed tears are held, Thy soft command 
To love ; in every nation, clime or land, 

That Thy great will may greet each passer-by. 

Take us by hand, O Master, that we see 
Thou art our inspiration and our source. 
Each soul we meet along our daily course 

Doth but reflect — in being, breathing — Thee! 

[New York City, October, 1912.] 



13 



Witmntttion 




iELODY, laughter, and dreams ; 
The wide world-wisdom seems 
To be hidden in these, 
As the pearl in the seas 
Of the deep-drift Meza streams. 

In the quickening woods, 'mongst the flowers. 
And the whispering wind, with its showers 

Of fluttering leaves 

Where the wild streamlet weaves 
Its singing way through the hours, 

Past the springtime meadows of life — 
Of shadow and sunshine and strife — 

Sweet violets grow. 

At the "end of the bow"— 
Spring where they once perished ; yet rife 

With the essence of song and of bloom ; 
Resurrection is robbing the tomb; 

For the spirit serene 

In this magical scene 
Brings to birth, life from death and the gloom. 

[OacaiDuiui-on^Hudson, 1912.] 



14 




jTtom tfte IBeponD 

\_l7i Memory of Adele Rafter^ 

|HATEVER you wish, my love ! my love ! 
It is not for me to say — 
I've given my heart to you to keep 

Through the day of song, though at night we weep. 

Together, the long and tranquil sleep 

Shall lighten the cares of day. 

I'm singing to you, my heart ! my heart ! 

The self-same song anew. 

That has echoed for ages through hearts of men — 

The song that awakens again and again: 

It comes at love's bidding. Life's fullness is when 

I'm singing this song to you. 

******* 

The sun went down, and the day grew cold, 
When she went home, beyond the sea. 
Oh, God of Life! am I then alone .'^ 
Oh, World of Death ! give me back my own ! 
The Voice came in murmuring monotone : 
"Forever I am one with Thee !" 

\Mus%c by Lamhord.] 



15 




Callinff 

AN I call you, soul of mine, 
From the woodland of the Pine? 
Will you come and claim your own, 
Shadow-mate to shadow grown? 

For I see your face to-night — 
Feel you in the pale moonlight ; 

In the tender voiceless air, 

In the silence — everywhere ! 

If I turn, you fill my thought ; 

In my prayer your image's wrought ; 
Like the waves upon the beach 
In their wash and endless reach ; 

With their ripple or their moan , 
Calling, calling for their own ! 

Thus my soul is like the sea 

Calling home, eternally ! 

Can I call you, soul of mine. 
From the woodland of the Pine? 
Will you come and claim your own. 
Shadow-mate to shadow grown? 



[Tangiers, 1911.] 



16 



Co tfte DanDelion 

^gUMBLE little Dandy- 
Lion of your class — 
Sprinkling your blooms about 
'Mongst the simple grass ; 



Featuring the landscape 
Gold with mingled green ; 

Opening at morning tide 
With a dewy sheen. 

Vieing with the sunlight — 
Day-stars o'er the sod — 

Cheery-faced and tender, 
Turning up to God. 

Soon your head is whitened — 
Poised a spectred wraith; 

Yellow turned to silver — 
Patriarch of the Faith! 

(Chemistry of Nature, 

Patterned but to change — 

Growth through death and re-birth 
Is the gamut's range.) 

Thus, your mission ended. 

Simple little flower — 
Sweetheart of the innocent — 

Spent is your brief hour. 

17 



But indexed in nature — 
Strong the eternal ways- 

You are living ever 

Numbered not in days. 

Little golden blossom 
Springing from the sod, 

You and I together 
Both belong to God ! 




Co a JFielD Poppp 

OU dazzling one ! — all scarlet, black, and gold ! 
Nodding your wayward head in truant style ; 
Flutt'ring your silken petals to beguile 
The passer-by with pouts and pretense bold! 

By day you beckon to behold your charm ; 

But dew-time finds your sails unfurled for sleep; 

This is the potion that you give, and keep; — 
Drenched in the moonlight — dreamless sleep's sweet 
balm. 



18 




Concrete 3Deal0 

[Man's Kingdomi 

|OVE on the heights is such a fragile plant, 
Requiring sustenance of its own kind; 
The Edelweiss, implanted in the snows 
Of centuries, sends forth its virgin bloom 
And beauty ; perfected in its own clime. 
In chaste conception thus all true love waits, 
Exultant in its strength and purity ; 
Steadfast above all brief joys. Hope 
Here holds to self a lasting purposed power; 
Builds unto man his best, for here resides 
All that shall follow and be his through life 
And on through dim unknown eternal ways. 
Man is his own creator! love a means — 
When it takes concrete form — to stimulate, 
To measure, large or small capacity 
Within ; to work and will and dare and do ; 
To forge a character, create a home 
With joys of merry voices — pictured saints! 
Why scatter this upon the desert wastes 
When God proclaims the man who conquers self. 
King of his empire — Ruler on his throne? 



19 




autumn Jl3ote0 

[/w New England} 

lED-TURRETED the trees stand in the wood; 
Fair golden-rod and asters fringe the hill ; 
Black wasps are buzzing 'bout the cornices 
Of barns, and nesting in the rafter-sill. 
The apples lie low dropping to the ground; 

The grapes cling clustering to the garden wall, 
And ripened nuts are falling all around ; 

September sounds the opening note of Fall ! 

[Boston, Mass., 1893.] 



20 



pastorale 




|HESE are the notes the poet knows 

From cymbal tones, and sounding brass. 
Of human obloquy, and woes 
Of worldly ways. The growing grass 
Breathes sweeter symphonies of sound ; 

The trees bear stronger evidence 
Of God's great purpose all around ; — 
These simple signs His monuments! 



31 




9©atenali$m 

[''Till Death Do Us Parf'] 

ERE! Take this body, then; 'tis yours "tiU 
death—" 
Though we live far apart as sun and earth ; 
You can but claim the shell : no touch or breath 
Of life's impulse where soul has given birth. 

Not mine to give, nor yours to wrest away 
By promises that sound to men most fair; 

Though you be Shylock seeking for his pay 

Not one small claim hold you on love ! Beware ! 

Let the play on ! Ring up the curtain now ! 

Who shall divine that hope bleeds, unfulfilled. 
Beneath this glittering burial place, and brow 

Begemmed, where love lies murdered — killed! 

[Pasadena, CaL, 1889.] 



22 



a Jancp 




wo idle eyes ! 
Two paths — to paradise or hell? 
Impetuous, tempestous, 
Or clear as dawn at birth of day. 

What mysteries and histories, 
And lingering wild memories. 
And shadows of serener skies. 
And vast forgivingness and truth, 
And hope, and love's sweet fire, and youth; 
'Till all the soul within me cries 

To idolize! 
Twin cups of mirth and mad delight. 
Where mischief murders pain at sight, 
And Cupid sits in rapt disguise — 

Two idle lies ! 



[New York City, 1895.] 



23 



On0trung 

IKE strains of music, vibrating among 
The heart's deep places, instruments unstrung 



Lie in the dusk, await the master-hand — 
As human souls await the high command. 

Unsung the songs by hearth and home once told ; 
Unstrung the lute that held life's story old ; 

Responding only to the magic touch 

Of some fine presence. Loving over-much 

The lesser things, we strive to turn aside 
And worship where the pure in heart abide. 

O life-worn worker enter fearlessly 

This new-world haven of hushed sanctity ; 

Where, vibrant with diviner atmospheres. 
We stand attuned to "music of the spheres." 

[New York City, 1912.] 



24 



^^w 



a0piration 

HY should I pause to look at little things? 
Why should I let them stop me in their pas- 
sage ? 

Were it not better holding always high 
Our vision on the point we would attain to? 
And live on in that altitude where we 
No more are tortured by the tired earth-groanings, 
Or weary word-voicing of pain, foreshadowing 
That out of which we grow to fuller being. 

In grandeur the new-born ideas sweep down 
And hold in spell-bound reverence the unvoiced 
Brave utterances of thought from mind and heart 
That bid us stand out in full majesty 
Of soul, resplendent! 

I soar away on clear-clipped wings of love 
To realms ecstatic, breathe the breath God ; 
And lie in rapt embraceure of a new 
And lasting light — Intelligence divine 
Awaiting but the spark within to rouse 
In comprehension! 

[Pasadena, Cal., 1891.] 



25 




|0T as all other men are you to me, 

But like some breath of fresh, new morning 
air; 

Buoyant with hope, sustaining, strong to bear. 
And pregnant with high-purposed energy. 
As streams from different source turn toward the sea, 

And there unite, so our emotions blend — 

More tranquil than the fitful currents trend — 
Suffusing all in a glad ecstasy ; 
Rejoicing that to each the others need 

Was given; flowing side by side 
Inseparably, in silent majesty; 

Safe-sheltered in the happy, full-souled pride 
Of twain grown one ! A sweet security 

And heaven's rest where heart and honor lead. 



26 




C!)e 3ntJi0i6le pre0ence 

PRESENCE that difFuses warmth and glow- 
Even as the sun's gold ray doth penetrate — 
Commands my being ; and the pulses wait 
Fulfillment, for life's sweeter ebb and flow. 

Subtle the fragrance of the mind attuned 
In thought and feeling ; blended as the tone 
Of some grand vibrant melody we've known 

In vast cathedrals where fine souls communed. 

The heart finds food in images of hope ; 
That which inspires approaches the divine 
Creative impulse — which the arts define. 

Untold the ways wherewith the masters cope. 

A Presence! which with each shall reunite 

Like glad hand-clasps, that hold us with no word ; 
Giving in full surrender, to afford 

The other's happiness — at its true height. 

[New York City, 1911.] 



27 




Consecration 

|0 back to life's Eden, 

To earth's natal dew : 
Flesh and form were but symbols 
For life to play through. 

Read and know what I say ! 

How a woman can feel 
When the heart of love's sunshine 

Is turned to cold steel. 

When the hunger of intellect — 

Brain, body, mind — 
Stands stagnant and dying 

For want of its kind. 

To life's fateful challenge 

She gave of her years ; 
To mercy and greed 

Of her gold and her tears. 

Of a gold that the coinage 

Is not known of men; 
Such as blends in the heart-beats 

Of maid, mother, when 

The promise is given 

To love and obey — 
Consecrated to heaven — 

A law for alway. 



28 



No poets gainsay me ; 

No prophets foretold 
The Sappho song hovering 

'Twixt new and the old. 

It is true of God's fire- 
Fed souls that can feel ; 

Their heart is the lyre 

And their heart's blood the seal ! 






jaeciptocitp 

T birth of morn, a pearly drop of dew 

Stood poised upon the petals of a flower. 
God placed it there its mission to pursue — 
Directed by love's insight, keen and true — 

Deep in this thirsting heart it spent its power. 

The rose bloomed on beneath the scorching rays 

Of noontide; fed by this one tear from heaven. 
Heart-comforted by token of His praise 
It sent its fragrance through the close byways, 
Cheering the day from dawn till tides of even. 

[New York City, 1911.] 



29 



irsi 



Reconciliation 

^As I have sins forgiven. Father, forgive T^ 

ORGIVE each passing word or lighter tone 
Than that which springs heart-tempered, pure 
and strong. 
Forgive ; and see, as I have dared to see. 
That in thy noble freedom am / free. 
Or yet more closely in thy strong embrace 
Hold me so pure that faith the fault erase. 
For loving overmuch some earthly things. 
My thought grew careless of the heart whose strings 
Vibrate my being's truer, nobler strain: 
And pride intruded where but peace should reign. 

Believing now all ends are good and just, 
Soul-pacified, in love I wait and trust. 

[Santa Monica, Cal., August 11, 1891.] 



30 



HAT is't of fear thou boldest here, O Death? 

Thou imaged dread lone stalker of the night ! 

'Tis night indeed in the sweet soul's fine place 
If it believe in thee and not in life ! 
Thou art a form that's conjured of th' unknown — 
A phase of life that fills the interim 
And meets the progress of a conscious soul 
Even as a gentle friend in solace meets 
Unconscious good. The necessary law 
By which all Nature's plans are circumscribed. 
For flower, and tree, and man, eternal change 
Encompasses the measure we call life. 
And energy divine doth mark our course 
When erstwhile we would rest as dreamers do, 
Responsive to calamity or joy; 
Requesting that our paths be margined out 
In placid peace into the dim unknown — 
The country where at last the souls are held — 
Foregoing not one carnal wish, nor sense 
Of pleasure, toward the endowment of this state. 
When will the mind of man maintain this truth.'' 
He is the architect of his estate ! 
His future rises from the stepping stones 
That he himself has builded in the past. 
And mounted from in tortuous round by round; 



31 



The minarets and lofty towers of thought 

His temples are, — the ones "not made by hands!" 

****** 

And Death comes gently, as the dews of night, 

(To comfort souls who traverse earth's parched sands), 

And bears each calmly to the great Beyond! 

[April 24, 1910.] 



Compensation 



^NTO the world of thought I went 

And gathered therefrom a branch half bent, 
And grafted it on to a life half spent; 
Then journeyed my way along. 

The years went went by, and the thought returned 
Bearing the fruit it had justly earned — 
A smiling face for the heart that yearned — 
And a life that was jfilled with song. 

[New York City, 1911.] 



Co a pi)ilo0opf)ical jFrienH 



g^^HOTT faithful one of word and deed, 

Quick to divine the world-souls need ; 
Unbarred the roads where progress came 
In your own time and need and name. 
Unsealed the vision; "Eyes of God" 
You have beheld in ways you've trod ! 
****** 

Two may be born with but short space between, 

Yet half a life-time here may intervene 
Ere they meet face to face, or heart to heart. 

(So strange the ways of nature at the start.) 
Two may be passing and repassing near — 

Vast continents are traversed — crossed the sphere — 
An impulse prompts us, and we know not why. 

We turn ; behold, Love's face stands bared close by ! 



33 




Cbe Onrter0al aB00ence 

[In One and in All~\ 

NREAD, unlettered though I stand alone — 
(Barbarians e'en would but defend their own). 
Sacred and sweet is life's new citadel 
As the first blush Aurora sends at dawn — 
Fulfillment of the promise, a new day 
Is ours ; and all we comprehend 
And can express of life shall mark its course 
And make each one, and yet the next, our day! 
Oh, earnest souls, arise and purify, — 
Make clean your standard, burnish your ideal 
Until its lustre luminates the skies 
And, by reflection, overshadows earth- 
In symbol or antithesis the two 
Stretch far apart, like an opponent's view 
Awaiting but the alchem}^ of mind 
To reunite. There is no far or near 
For those united in a purpose strong. 
The good and evil are degrees of growth — 
(Interpretation of the laws of life.) 
The fitting in of things to our own code — 
This does not broaden, but contracts the view. 
Be universal, grand, sublime in soul! 
And sing the Song of Nations, not of one! 
For law is law, unsought or unexpressed — 
And we are held subservient to a will 
That works regardless of our small intent. 
Turn with the tide ! Seek harmony, not strife ! 

34 



All labor gains where love doth supervise. 
Freedom itself is man's great motive power, — 
The soil where character alone can thrive: 
Reward and punishment, the bribe, the claim, 
For children are ; not for man's full estate 
Through discipline of penalties to walk 
The path observed by modem truth ; a goal 
Fixed for to-day, — not for all time — a scale 
That slides befitting the advancing trend 
Of thought and mind and work and worship. 

When 
Man shall be great enough to know the truth. 
And strong enough to live it; when. 
As cycles of each carnate life lap by 
And over-lap into the next of kin — 
(For few there be who penetrate beyond 
The time limit of years and worldly cares ; 
Material limitations, they call life) — 
Into that broader, higher consciousness 
Where victory and its adherents dwell. 
Then each shall sound with trumpet blast the cry 
"Oh, Universe of Life ! There is no death !" 

[Written for the Cameo Club, New York City, 1910.] 



35 




DeaD iLotje 

HOSTS in the air ! Ghosts of the dead 
Love words once spoken; 
And death the token 
Of all you gave or said. 

Mere flesh ! and their's the breath that used you. 
Mere flesh! — their spirit interfused you; 

Loved — or lied! 
Love was the word you used to fetter — 

Nay, to deride; 
For had you loved e'en well, or better, 
Love had not died! 

[New York City, 1894.] 



36 




Cfte Hoom of HiU 

REINCAENATION 

[To Floyd B. Wilson] 

N the beginning of flesh and spirit, 
In the world of time and space, 
Evolved as a unit from aeons 
Into one of the human race ; 

Enveloped for one blissful moment 

In the merciful arms of love — 
I was held by the cosmic forces — 

By the God who rules above! 

With the groaning and travail of earth come 
The registered growth of man — 

The birth of the soul immortal — 
A part of the Infinite plan. 

We may see but the image in passing ; 

Receptacled therein the mind — \^ 
Creative and pro-creative \ 

A chalice to mortals assigned. 

Each centered soul is a key-board 

For the heavenly harmonies, 
Where the unseen claim cognition — 

Reembodied in life's mysteries. 



37 



Where those who have been translated 

To the bright Beyond, may send 
To each a conscious greeting 

Through the universal trend. 

Oh, to lie in the lap of Creation ! 

To drink of the spirit divine. 
Encircled by richest unfoldment 

When water again turns to wine! 

'Neath the dome of civilization — 

Where the record of lives must be kept ; 

Where the mother-heart broods o'er her children, 
As the Christ o'er the world when He wept — 

I see — as a fiery comet — 

The meeting of ways that diverge ; 

See the hordes of opposing forces 
Held and led by the mystical urge. 

And I sweep through the storied ages — 

Through the luminous worlds — from the sod — 

As I pass by the dimly lit stages 

To the great subconscious One — God! 



38 



Co an (Bamt ILilp 



|0W chaste the lily! Did long centuries free 
Its beauty, with its cold, pale chastity? 
Poised, golden-stamened, stately swaying head 
Like bell-cups, hanging silently. Instead 
Of music, floats a fragrance on the air — 
A subtle language, potent, deep and rare; 
Sending its soul in silence through the night: 
A "wireless" message — 'reft of sound or sight — 
Appealing, as if incense's faint impress 
Impinged on memory, in a flower's caress. 

[Oscawana-on-Hudson, 1912.] 



39 



Poetic perception 



[To Prof. Chas. Mills Gailey- 
California] 



-University of 



HAT mind we of the Cause or Reason why, 
So we enjoy the present at its best, 
In richly rounded impulses that rest 
As syllables, while sentenced life goes by? 
Our builded hopes were lasting did we try 
To fashion them from serious soil, not jest; 
Being matched in stature to the soul, las test — 
Illumined live, when lesser lights shall die. 

[Berkeley, Cal, 1892.] 



40 



Sometime 

^^^OMETIME when all life's lessons have been 

^^^y learned, 

= ^f^^^^i^ And we shall know each one without the name ; 



When cheek and shoulder, pressed by lips that burned, 
Shall be resolved to dust from whence they came: 

I wonder then, if bared there, each to each, 
Our souls are held, will shudders of regret 

Come tremulous from out the past to teach. 
Not words, but sacrifice, and lashes wet 

Will purify and prove the love professed. 

Born of the soul, then shall it live for aye; 
But love of flesh must perish with the flesh; 

Divine exists forever — now, alway! 

[San Francisco, Cal., 1892.] 



41 




Cfte Lato of 2Dppo$ite0 

HERE is a window from which we look out 
And gaze upon the passing scenes with doubt, 
To gauge our own security about. 



Its diamond panes are wrought of purest glass ; 
Lit by the soul, the lights that through them pass 
Clairvoyant — vision of the world en masse, 

I looked without in deep solicitude ; 

To guard a friend from grievous wrong I stood, — 

To turn her thought toward higher forms of good. 

For at her feet a fearful serpent lay! — 

Built link on link its massive vertebrae, 

A "Mastodon" in growth, from day to day. 

And as I gazed this hideous shapen thing. 

Grew many headed for its fatal sting. 

Grew double voiced; with but one song to sing. 

Then conscious fear's first impulse was to beat 
Life from this form of terror and deceit. 
She flung with force the reptile at my feet ! 

I stood prepared to meet the poisoned tongue ; 

For principle — to suffer keener wrong; 

But look ! 'Tis dead ! Like faint grey mists among 



43 



The morning dews, its wraith arose and passed 
As ashes moves before a chilling blast. 
And here behold a law which frees at last. 

Love only lives, by virtue of its state 
In universal purpose; — love, not hate — 
For God is love; and "only God is great!" 

Dissensions come that out of them shall grow 

(If we would only understand and know) 

A plan more perfect, from the thought we sow. 

Have faith in the eternal forms of grace; 
Forgive each flaw in this great human race; 
For all shall stand as one before His face. 



43 



Dream jFace0 

S echoes of a thousand thoughts 
Drift down the aisles of time 
^^Mi I greet old dreams of mine again, 



And fetter them in rhyme. 

I see in dreamy reverie 

A line of spectral faces 
Rise up and pass before me, 

In slow and measured paces. 

I know that they but claim their own; 

Those half-averted glances — 
My own dead past they each reflect — 

Its follies and its fancies. 

I fain would call each one by name, 
And check them in their going 

To link the present and the past's 
Eternal ebb and flowing. 

But never one can I recall, 

I can not e'en detain 
The present soon to be the past 

In life's eternal chain. 

So solemnly they all pass on 
With slow and measured paces ; 

And silently we one by one 

Are each assigned our places. 

[San Francisco, Cat., 1889.] 

44 



TSittb of tfte JRo0e 

^'God thought and the world was born!'* 



PERFECT thought hung, hovering, in the air 
Seeking expression visible, and found 
A chaste young shoot of green, from virgin 
ground 
All budded, and gladly entered there. 

He filled her soul with beauty, and at morn 

Drew warmth of love from the young Sun-God's ray ; 
The dew from night, the secrets from the clay ; 

She sighed — the petals burst — a rose was born! 

[Hotel Normandie, Paris, 1898.] 



45 




^O more : let there be no more said : 
Silence is best; you did not prove 
That crime was crime, that love was love 
Until — until 'twas dead! 

It lay there white, and oh, so still ; 

No sound betrayed its agony; 

No motion — that the heart was free, 
Free from the ruling will. 

But like the plaint of mating doves — 

Or tossing, turbulent waves at sea 

Chanting their own miserere 
For love, for sweet lost loves — 

There comes the wail upon the wind 

Borne inland to the soul-sorrow; 

Shall we clasp it or let it go? 
Go, higher faith to find! 

If one could speak the noble truth 
And, speaking, thus resuscitate 
This love (gone early, coming late). 

And turn the years to youth! 

We'll build for this no burial place; 

Its birth was from the unknown source. 

When love ignites, a burning force 

Moulds into one, each grace. 

ii& « ft^ « « # 

46 



From out the long and tangled years 
In some remote, untitled land 
By love refound at last, we'll stand, 

Beyond the tide of tears. 

Beyond ! In that new sphere of light ! 
The dear lost hands shall intertwine 
In paradise, thine clasped in mine, 

Where souls have gained their height. 



47 




iaea0$utance 

HERE are no dead! Those loving voices — 
hushed — 
Speak plainly to us could we understand; 
They counsel us in ways we know not of, 
And in dark places hold us hand by hand ! 

[Written after reading Maeterlinck's "Tresors des Humble," in 
which he sa^s: "We know that the dead do not die. We know 
that it is not in our churchyards they are to be found, but in the 
houses and habits of us all."] 



48 




patting 

[To My Dear Father^ 

HEN we must go, 
We linger loath, for yet an hour or so : 
Seeing beauties new; some good in friend and 
foe. 

And then "good-bye" 

Is said. AfFection's mist quick dims the eye; 

And joy's light laugh turns plaintively a sigh. 

So, at the last. 

When life's full numbered pages all are past 

But closing ones— then laggard time flies fast. 

Here, almost through, 

We pause; past scenes flash up in mute review. 

Our crosses, conflicts, and the love proved true. 

O change, delay 

A little ! Life, give but one more fair day I 

Too soon thy crucible turns gold to grey. 

Autumn is here! 

Its tawny touch turns russet, brown and sere 

Bright Summer's blooms; and yet with unknown fear 

We say "Good-bye!" 

Nor know if winter's chill and frost will he 

Less kindly, 'neath some new-found foreign sky. 



[New London, Conn,, 1893.] 



49 




mUbin 

[To Francois Coppee^ 

T evening when the shadows fall 
And sultry clouds sink slow to rest, 
Above the new-night's tranquil breast 
In one great all-enclosing pall, 
I think of those whom I loved best. 
And bring them to me. One and all 
They come like answering echoes' call 
From memory's chambers of the blest. 

Faint lined against the silvery mist 

Of time's long pages — time long gone — 

I greet again the lips I've kissed 
In that past age, and held my own ; 

And pray that one remembered bliss 
May still be ours in the Unknown ! 



[Paris, 1897.] 



50 



Co a OJilD iao0e 

OSE of the sweet, wild way, 
Rose of the roadside hedge ; 
Hidden the sweet-briar thorns 
'Neath her ribboned and fluted edge. 



Many an inconstant bee 

As play- fellow, dips in her heart ; 
Filled with her fragrances, he 

Has lingered there, loath to depart 

Lingered till night-fall and dew 
Closed her leaves over his head; 

Fashioned a canopy new — 

Lending her heart for his bed. 

Up with the call of the bird, 
Breath of the morning, a-wing! 

(Beauty a prison house) — stirred 
With all living nature to sing. 

Rose of the wild sweet briar! 

Born of the sun and the dew; 
Unfurled her petals at morn — 

Opened to God, and to you ! 



51 



f^tatt J|)unger 

LOUDED its birthright of gladness, 
Drooping and sobbing with sadness, 
Drifting, 

Shifting 
This soul like the sands of the sea ! 

Dragged by the teeth of the tide down; 
Suddenly day into night grown. 
Wearily, 

Drearily, 
No human heart haven for me. 

Oh, for the anchor that love gives ! 
Only to know that some heart lives! 
Hungering, 

Murmuring, 
For that it were my joy to be. 



52 




Cran0formation 



"Fair soul, in your fine frame hath love no quality, if the quick 
fire of youth light not your mind, you are no maiden but a — 
monmment." 



AM no monument, but truly human ! 

Containing all that flows from life divine ; 
Which thrills from farthest star to heart of 
mine — 
And echoes past proclaim that "You are Woman !" 

We are the soil, regenerating man ; 

By God implanted throughout earth's broad lands; 

The soul and tissue here unite — join hands — 
Nature ordains, we follow out the plan. 

The body — formed by mind from dust of earth — 
The positive the breath of life breathes through 
The negative; a potent force and true, 

For lo! combined, a soul is given birth! 

[New York City, 1886.] 



53 



Crepuiscule 



TWIIilGHT 



\_To Jules Massenefl 



REEFING gently at the close of day, 
Through the twilight's silvery refrain, 
Come the shadows from the "far away" 
Linked in memory to the present's chain. 

Oh, the visions of the days gone by ! 

In the dusk their dancing feet keep time 
To the muted music ; now a sigh, 

Now a moan, or minor chord in chime. 

Gaily sailing o'er the fitful foam ; 

Evanescent dreams of love's delight; 
But at twilight turns each soul tow'rd home, 

Trailing shadows in the wake of night. 

From the sombre duskiness and gloom 
Smiles some face of reminiscent days. 

Held in reverie — woven in time's loom — 

Heart's-blood fabric, where God parts the ways. 



[Music by Frank E. Ward, 1911. \ 



54 




Courage (UnDping 

THE TITANIC DISASTER 

[In Memory of William T. Stead] 

HERE came the common hour of death's release 
To larger life, from the dark grey sea's dim 
Long weary watch: death's portal-ways to 
peace — 
When human spirits seek their peace in Him. 

If we could feel assured thus, without fears, 

That each one went — a child of God — "gone home!" 

And lessen by this truth the weight of tears — 
The agony of loss, by gain to come. 

Earth holds no silence such as fills the sea; 

Oblivion waits there with abated breath. 
The disembodied soul seeks climes more free. 

Back to the Giver, Lord of life and death ! 

See now the dear one, as you saw of old. 
Draw near the soul by love's telepathy; 

Picture the presence, yours to have and hold; 
Conquer by courage ! God rules o'er the sea ! 

[April 11, 1913.] 



55 



^a0que0 



MAN! Thou'rt fitted for diviner things 
Than that of which the carnate world-sense 
sings, 

O soul ! and nobler far thy swift, sweet reign, 
Partaking of life's chastened joy or pain. 




66 




at tfte piap 

T was "Midsummer Night" 
At Shakespeare's play, 
Where, held by the music's intoning, 
The key and the quest 
Of love's behest, 
And the viol's and basse's low moaning, 
That the liquid spent 
With mischief's intent. 
Reached my eyes and my senses robbing. 
For my soul could see 
You bending o'er me — 
Could feel your heart's tense throbbing. 

For a moment between 

The acts, next scene, 
My head drooped back and rested 

Where the cushioned seat 

And the box rail meet ; 
And sleep all my senses infested. 

By a dim star-gleam. 

With you, I could seem 
To float in a world of ether ; — 

You stood there, white. 

In the faint trance-light. 
Then we wandered away together. 



57 



'Twas the soul of me there, 

In the scintillant air, 
You had captured and held it in tether. 

Steadfast; prone to possess, 

In its deep sacredness. 
Soul and shape, as God fashioned it. Whether 

The spirit of dreams. 

Or mesmeric gleams 
Induced, by their magic, your staying — 

I awoke with a start ! 

All of Mendelssohn's art 
Pouring forth from the orchestra's playing! 

The portrayal chaste. 

In Ben Greet's taste — 
Of Shakespeare's "Dream" danced before me ; 

But which was the real. 

And which the ideal? 
And which wove the spell that came o'er me? 

(You stood there, white. 

In the dim trance-light!) 
It was Mendelssohn's music still crashing; 

'Twas the Wedding March 

Of the triumphal Arch, 
And the World the procession there flashing! 

[New York City, April, 1911.] 



58 




attraction 

HERE are no bonds, there are no ties to break 
For souls united ! Roused from that long sleep 
Of death in life, the dismal vapors creep 
Away ; unveiled, the truer self awakes. 

Like clings to like, love holds its own in love; 
Spirit with spirit meets ; attraction blends. 
Enwraps, transmits, — for nature's purposed ends — 

To sensuous earth, from listening mind above. 

[Hotel Wentworth, New Castle, N. H., 1887.] 




mm iao0e0 

IWEET— 

As the wild rose 

By light winds beat 

Its fragrance throws 
In petals at your feet, 

'Midst Summer's waste of blows, 
Dying, incomplete, 



Dear- 



So would my life 
Be transient, drear, 

But strong love's strife 
Hath cherished presence here. 

I kneel to pray — "O God, 
Give faith, not fear!" 

Liove Loyal and blessed. 

All loves above! 

Rose-petals pressed 
I send you, which may prove 

(Sweet odors clinging like red lips caressed) 
The breath of love. 

Heart— q^i, hapless quest! 

The tired tears start — 

So long repressed — 
For haven in your heart. 

With one quick sob I'd close my eyes and rest, 
Healed of the smart! 



[Written in the old Wild Rose Lane, East Lyme, Conn., June, 
1893.] 

60, 




Ketro^pection 

EARS come and smiles go ; my emotions are 
stirred 
By thoughts that lie deep and that never are 
heard. 
As I look on the world and the faces of men 
There is one that I search for, and long for, as when 
But a child, he caressed me close clasped on his knee. 
His smile held the gladness of sunlight for me, 
And his songs had the melody never yet heard 
In the countless new strains that my soul have since 

stirred. 
My first and best lover, my hero in rhyme, 
My Father! in childhood and love's pure springtime. 

[Long Beach, Cal, 1891.] 



61 




Kequiem 

|Y lover has gone, — gone down to the sea! 
The whistling wind makes moan, 
And the saddening wail of its miserere 
Haunts the silence — and me — alone. 

So closely I hold to this hungering thing, 
This sorrowing pain in my breast. 

It seems to pulse into life and fling 
Its shadow o'er my unrest. 

The winds blow inland from the sea; 

The solemn waves intone, 
Bringing their messages back to me 

From the place where my lover has gone. 

He has passed beyond the reach of my hand. 
Or the touch of the kisses he taught. 

But in either world of spirit or land, 
He shall reign in this temple of thought. 

And days like this when the wind-fiends shriek 

In their maddening monotone, 
I watch the waves on the shore-sands bleak, — 

I and my soul — alone! 

[On the Pacific, 1893.] 



change 




DRIFT upon a shoreless waste of time 
We downward look from summits where we climb, 
And from that Mount of Isolation cry : 
"Can this lone self be I?" Oh agony! 
We shudder and we shrink from the abyss 
That lies 'twixt that glad other life and this ; 
Lest suddenly keen memory should rend 
The veil that shrouds the past, which, as a friend. 
Stands guard between the midsun's piercing ray 
(Whose shadow falling, cools the burning way). 
Where too great radiance burst upon our gloom 
Would make us blind. From resurrection's tomb 
We call but faintly, for our strength is yet 
Too small to taint with longing and regret. 



[Califorma, 1890.] 




Ketjelatiott 

HIS is the moment for which I have prayed ! 
Throw off disguise, 
Past prying eyes, 
Stand face to face as by one impulse made ! 

Hold me so close to you that I can live ; 

Breathe of your breath — 

Foeman to death — 

(Rich with the blisses 

Of unuttered kisses) 

Die in forgetfulness 

Of the world's fretfulness ; 
Live in the confidence one soul can give. 

How did I come to you? God knows that best ; 

Through the dark mystery 

Of life's tangled history; 

Out o'er the distance 

Conquering resistance 
Of time and space to be held yours at last! 

[Hotel Amidon, Los Angeles, Cal., June, 1891.] 



64 




at JFlooD CiDe 

HE waves come dashing inland to the shore 
With all the eager lapping love of life ; 
But coy, resisting this new influx rife, 
It sends the waters back with sullen roar. 

But tireless wooer of seductive charms, 
That lie unfathomed on the upper beach 
Beyond the enamored sea-wave's ardent reach, 

With one bold rise it gathers to its arms 

And holds engulfed in its desired embrace; 
At each retreat advancing but the higher. 
Till earth receives and welcomes his desire — 

Flooding her borders in relentless chase. 

[Long Beach, Cal, 1891.] 



65 




(Bntntt from OSallaD to tfte JFlotoerg 



H, flowers ! sweet sacred things, 
That speak from heart to heart. 
I'll bind you close to my bruised breast. 
That out of heart's-ease may come rest 
To heal it of its smart. 

Such peerless, petaled sweets. 

Lie folded in your chalices. 
Pure buds of heaven that bloom on earth, 
To herald love with death and birth; 
Voiceless, you breathe unspoken things 

In vocal silences. 

[Golden Gate Park, 1890.] 



66 



Cfte aniV3et0aI Spirit 

'When that which drew from out the boundless deep 
Turns again home." — Tennyson. 



HILE there's mourning in the valley 
Let us look toward summits bright, 
For we know the law of nature 



Works from darkness into light, 
And the soul's eternal mission 
Changes weakness into might. 

Life in tiny germ enfolded 
In the mystery of the womb 

Still to other life is moulded 
In the shadow of the tomb ; 

As the seed in earth enrolled 

Springs to life in fruit and bloom. 

Death's no break in our existence ; 

Just a stepping stone above ; 
'Tis the link that binds the lower 

With the higher forms of love. 
It is birth into eternal 

Life, evolved from the Great Love. 



'Tis the law of love, uniting 
With the spirit at its birth. 

"Dust thou art, to dust returnest 
Leaves the ashes to the earth ; 

But the spirit, life transcendent 
Claims, in its immortal worth. 
6T 



99 



As the sunset to our vision 
Is but sunrise farther on, 

So-called death is but transition — 
Is the re-birth from the form 

Into the great universal 

Life, from which the soul was born. 

[East Lyme, Conn., September 6, 1901.] 



"aimct" 



^^^^O love means not surrender! 

Love means more — to endure — 
Yet for each word you send her, 



Or thought from soul so tender, 
You may rest safe and sure 

Where heart throbs pain engender 
Love will remain secure. 

If love cannot surrender 
It can do more — endure! 



[Music by C. de Vaux-Royer.] 

[Hotel Raymond, Pasadena, Cal., 1888.] 



M a60ence 

HY are the hours filled with a loneliness, 
Haunting the days and nights in vague dis- 
tress, 
Now that his voice, his presence, has grown less? 

'Tis not alone the imaged form I see, 

Craving to meet the deep necessity; 

But something more enduring yet — more free. 

A subtle force comes from we know not where, 
A radiance flung, like music, on the air. 
Giving to life its purposed strength to bear. 

In our high moments, soul-immersed are we; 
Untouched by earth's restless turbidity — 
Of world commotion and intensity. 

Eternally surprising to each sex. 

Are those stern inner qualities that vex 

Or toss us, high and dry, like sand-bar wrecks. 

Some oasis or some new isle we seek, 

Where, shared, the blasts of Winter seem less bleak. 

And Summer tides will temper hearts grown meek. 

This human heart, whose ever tender strain 

Beats trustfully ; its frailities and its pain 

Bared; tears of anguish here the truth make plain. 



TO 



A new horizon ! For us a new star ! 
Our aspirations fired by distance are. 
Though unattained, joy signals from afar. 

Here is the Light, within the transient clay! 
Man, the immortal, holds the flaming ray! 
A high divinity transforms his way. 

And thus again, 'tis not the form nor face — 
But that which throbs within; a latent grace- 
Moulded of God, "His Image" to encase. 

[Lancaster, August 31, 1911.] 



71 



a&negation 



^AST night as you lay in the dusk — 
In the dusk at my feet, 
I thought that this wide world could hold 



No rapture more sweet; 
That only a lover's strong fold 
Could make life complete. 

But now in the cool rays of morn, 

Deprived of the charm 
Of emotions that keep the heart warm. 

And the thrill of your arm 
That vibrated through form to form. 

To shield from alarm ; 

I know that my duty lies here; 

Yet all love that's given 
Will help us, and make the way clear 

For our hopes of a heaven ; 
Will hold us each closer and near 

To our longed-for lost heaven! 

Oh, God! in Thy pitying might, 

I pray to be kept 
Close-clasped to the rigid-laid right. 

Where strong hearts have wept, — 
That my soul shall rise fair in Thy sight. 

From the furnace that slept! 

[San Francisco, Cal, 1892.] 

n 




Determination 

HOLD no destiny shall claim me here ! 
Poised in the hollow of a mighty hand 
Beneath the sunlight of a strange, new land, 

Reposed serene, I wait for skies to clear. 

****** 

Not by the blow of breath nor wave of hands 

Are our great deeds accomplished, but they grow 
As tiny buds of feeling burst to bloom : 
Or as the bounding brooklets first have come 
From out their creviced mountain source to flow 

Onward through dark ravines to sweep broad lands. 

[San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena, Cal., May, 1891.] 



73 




amfiition 

g|HE was a fragile vine, and he — 

He rose a strong and towering tree 

Superb in manhood's majesty. 
***** 

Right at this sturdy column's foot 
Where its firm trunk had taken root 

A slender vine had sprung. 
His young sap-blood went pulsing high 
At touch of one so coy and shy 

Who, loving, crept and clung 

Close to the rugged bark he wore, 
And trailed her graceful tendrils o'er 

In sweet timidity. 
He proudly spread his boughs about 
Pride shutting every sun-ray out 

From her, insensibly. 

She, pensive, pined in discontent 
Hid from her native element. 

Which gave her strength to cling; 
And day by day she paler grew 
As deeper in the shade he threw 

This tender, faithful thing. 

He reared his branches broad and high ; 
Ambition lured him to the sky ; 

(The vine looked up and sighed) 
Forgetful of youth's tenderness 
When life was fed with love's caress — 

(The vine drooped low and died). 

74 



True to her nature, even in death, 
She clung until a rude wind's breath 

Consigned her to the ground, 
To be again to mother earth 
The same as ere 'twas given birth 

To rise above its mound. 

The strong, staid tree grows gnarled and bowed ; 
Its shadow falls, like sorrow's shroud. 

O'er love that died so young; 
And from the place where one pure spark 
Had perished in the mould and dark 

A poison ivy sprung! 

[San Francisco, Cal, 1890.] 



75 



iQigftrtall at 2D0catoana 

[To Dr. and Mrs. Gillinghaml 

FLUSH of sky, a field of grain, 
And the lily-bells ring a long-lost strain. 
Where the hillsides lie fresh-drenched in rain, 



The wild sweet clover nods its head 

And marshals its serried ranks, where fed 

The rover bee, to honey wed. 

Tall, stately poplars throw their shade 
In long lines by the ancient glade; 
And nature's voices — unafraid — 

Ring jubilant at parting day. 
As distant sun-gleams fade away 
From winding roadways where we stray. 

One lone star heralds from on high 
The new-born crescent in the sky; 
And night falls near us, tranquilly. 

In murmurous breezes, languorous air, 

God all around us — unaware: 

The great world rests in silent prayer. 

Out on the night a cricket's "cheep" 
And heart-ease comes as shadows creep 
Like guardians over all that sleep. 



76 



w 



Spring ^f)otoer0 

jHEN some mad gust of feeling overleaps 

The boundary line and plunges in the deep 
3 Of dreams — tear-laden by delayed desire- 



Then nature, in her mercy, bids us weep. 

Kind mother, in her course of numbered hours — 
Who knows life's brief unrest and troublous showers, 

From out the darkest mould her secrets shrined, 
Once more released, behold transfigured powers! 

The aftermath brings music, and the trill 
Of robin-mates in air ; the high free will 

Of fairy fingers wreathing nights and days 
With Spring's rare miracle, and souls a-thrill! 

[May, 1912.] 



77 



ill 



3func 




IHY name must always bear, dear June, 
^^J Faint incense of a deep content ; 

wT''^, ^^ °"'°"''* "«'**"' rose-hedges scent, 
When the heart of the great world beats in tune. 

[Oscawana^on-Hudson, June, 1912A 



78 




Cfte mm of Lotje 

LL precious things it strives to interpose 
For its beloved: protection seeks and fame. 
Glamour of glory and high-sounding name; 
Applauds perfection wheresoe'er he goes. 
Guards prejudiced convention of his foes — 
Holds ever to the highest her lord's aim. 
Feeling and thought sent broadcast, as the flame, 
Attracts, burns and consumes. ('Tis love that knows!) 

Accepts with tenderest grace this high control, — 
For at the centre truth and goodness reign: — 

Mutely awaits the flowering of the soul. 
When finite shall the infinite attain. — 

And dew-drenched asphodels appoint the goal — 
The sweet and bitter of love's joy or pain! 



79 




N secret places, in the olden time, 
I Love found its way, surmounting space and 
clime ; 

To-day 'tis science that applies the torch 
And scalpel, searching for Love's wounds, and scorch, 
To analyze and learn its source; but stay! 
Love, snatched bald-headed, turns and runs away. 

The soul will ever find its own and mate ; 
Regardless, it embraces all with fate, 
And hallows every walk and inch of ground 
It traverses, — with its ideal found: 
Perpetuates in graven image — stone. 
In lines of beauty, where it claims its own: 
And animates cold marble into warm 
Semblance of pulsing life, in chiseled form ; 
Illuminates in color, thought and heart 
United, on the canvas brushed by art. 

And thus, throughout the universe, Love blends, 

Endows with magic man's deep purposed ends ; 

Attunes the soul to its melodic chime. 

And rings untrammeled down the aisles of time ; 

Wreathes golden halos round the commonplace. 

Enhances virtue with a new-found grace. 

To you, Oh! Artist-poet, let resound 

Through all the world, the message you have found! 



De0truction of tfte Cemple 



TINY match ! A force in ambush lay ! 
An accidental heel that trod that way 
Awoke the slumbering tyrant's conscious power. 
It leapt from low-born source to highest tower, 
And wrought swift devastation in an hour. 




At first a spark — 'twas like platonic love — 
Controlled it served; but let at random rove, 
Its fiery nature quick enamored, flew 
From primal source ignited, till it grew 
Into a flame, a roving, amorous sheet 
That wraps its mistress, turret, dome and feet; 
Brings her proud form low down into the dust 
Of ashes; fruits of its destructive lust. 

And thus it ends, desire extinguished, fled! 
A brief fruition lies burned out and dead! 
Cold embers only mark where once was fire, 
A vultured greed — a smouldering funeral pyre! 



[Written on the burning of the Unitarian Church at Los Angeles, 
Cal, 1890.] 



81 




JRenunnation 

OOD-BYE ! Good-bye, at last ! 
And draw a curtain deep as night 
Across the tortured tear-dimmed sight 
To hide that misspent past. 

In years, when you recall, 

You'll hold her then as one you felt 
As pure as any babe that knelt, 

Or Eve before the fall. 

If sin it was, forgive 

With God, and look within the heart — 
'Tis hard from life all love to part 

And be condemned to live. 

Sometime, — God wills it so — 

In some far, bright unfathomed land, 
Bared each to each our souls shall stand 

Where we're known as we shall know! 



[189g.] 



SDoI affection0 

"Our idols are our executioners" 

HAT count these earthly baubles, things of 
state, 
When one loved best of all that's loved on 
earth 
Has left us to a present desolate? 

Where courted pleasures' place to pain gives birth! 

I peer into the darkening, silent night. 

Some eager thought or mute, unspoken word 
Draw from your soul to mine, perchance I might, 

To quell the battling of a hope deferred. 

But chill and strange stands Silence there impaled! 

No way past common ways to bear me out 
By that grim sentinel so deeply veiled. 

I sink into a dreamless sea of doubt. 

I know — as one who listens after death — 
Our distant paths were led apart, that we 

Who hung for life upon each other's breath 

Might greater faith through long endurance see. 

From cold pale graves, and empty shrines shall roll, 
Into some new-born brighter world of ours 

The ripened growth from gardens of the soul — 

Where once were weeds will then spring fairest 
flowers. 

[Written at Castle Felsberg, Lucerne, 1897.] 

83 




ffl)0catoana 

jAWN and a dewy hush! 

With a charm that bids us stay — 
Where Oscawana lies 
Near the portals of the day; 
Where the sun-kissed hills arise 

Till their summits far away 
Blend with the azure skies ; 

And the soul of the upper world 
To the spirit of earth replies. 

Dreams and a flood of gold, — 

Valleys of bloom and shade ! 
Monarchs of centuries stand 

In the groves where God's temples were made- 
["Temples not made by hand."] 

And here lost beauty strayed — 
Trembled through all the land; 

And far through the silences played 
The music that we understand! 



84 



peace 

[Dedicated to Andrew Carnegie] 



^gOW much, Oh soul of my life! my own — soul of 
^)J my sleepless dream; 

^M May we know of the great Beyond ; or know — 
as we hear the mystical call — 
Of the commoner things at hand, revealed through the 
iridescent gleam? 
The prophets of earth who foretell, will they say 
when the dews of peace shall fall? 

Oh, shadow soul of my day and my night ; soul of my 
deep desire! 
Light of my faith in the ultimate scheme, through- 
out the incalculable years! 
I hear the unseen waves on the strand — the grey dusk, 
the white dawn's fire — 
The innumerable dead who have gone before, through 
the silences. Dew of tears 

From the longing mind, fills the heart's deep place. 
The inevitable tides of life 
Are surging with passionate love and its lure, from 
the depths to the lonely height. 
The drifting stars, o'er the face of earth, illumine its 
tremulous strife, 
And the soft low chant of the sea wave's beat washes 
the shores of Night. 



85 



Night of my soul and night of the years ! Oh, darken- 
ing world desire, 
That haunts the sad wan multitude in the silent 
portal ways — 
When shall we banish the thrall of the spell of the 
blind, by the luminous fire? 
Fire of the wonderful Word! aflame, since the dim 
immemorial days. 

In that timeless age, when the thought of His mind 
moved through the worldless space. 
And Light was born in the "image of God," and the 
craving spirit freed. 
When Man uprose and claimed the earth ; — immortality 
for the race: 
And crowned himself with the Infinite, and gave his 
soul its need. 

His prayerful songs ascend to heaven and sweep the 
immaculate ways ; 
Their phantom echoes penetrate the deeps of the air 
and sea, 
As sound upon sound reverberates the hymn of eternal 
praise — 
The music of manifold release; the new world-har- 
mony! 

[Harmon-on-Hudson, 1911.] 



86 




UR life is dual; twice assured: in memory and 
reality. 
Though what we are becomes obscured by 
others claimed identity : 
Contorted by their own minds eye — revealed by little- 
ness or great 
Deeds or misdoings, — joy or sigh — measured by jeal- 
ousy or hate. 

Thank God, we stand for what we are before some high 

eternal throne 
Of reason; freed from curse and jar of envious minds — - 

even tho' alone. 
The poet sings that "sorrows crown of sorrow sweet 

remembrance brings" 
By some strange alchemy 'tis shown that memory holds 

the happiest things. 

Old scenes came back to me last night, placed like a 

painting on the wall ; 
The canvas beamed in colorings bright, and faces 

dear — familiar, all 
Were brought to mind, in word and song. The world 

was fair, rose-hedged the way — 
And flowers were blooming all along; life seemed one 

bland eternal day. 



8T 



In memory's picture, smart and slight were banished; 

each one at his best 
As man to God, strove for his height: as God to man 

had marked his crest. 
Not creatures they of circumstance; proud-messaged — 

borne beyond the "now" — 
Eternal-present ! with them blent new meanings ; that 

a trumpets blow 

Heralds us not ; our birth and death divides not life into 

a span — 
A section of the whole — a breath abiding but a space 

with man. 
For life is all eternity — and time a measurement in 

mind. 
Change intervenes — Infinity ! to-morrow we new worlds 

may find. 



88 



l^ereDftp 



[The Common Cause'] 




LL creatures from a common source, 
We live and love and laugh, and sigh. 
A jest spent on the passer-bj 
Propels life's wheels in even course 
Sans choice! True service lasts. Pent in 

Each frame and form, humanity 
Still palpitates. No worldly sin 

Or power of place or thought can free — 
(Ambitions perquisites, to he!) 
Can penetrate this pedestal, 
Which holds — God's will — a soul in thrall. 

To rob it of its type or kin ; 

Descent from dim ancestral tie — 

Stamped by a high heredity! 




Cfte Call of S)pnng 

THOUGHT I heard the other day, 

The throb of spring. 
It echoed round the moss-grown wall 
In joyous ring 
Of happy-hearted children's call, 
And birds a-wing. 

To-day it nestles in my heart — 

Heart of the rose — 
And bids the tiny petals start 

To buds and blows ; 
And growth becomes God's great fine art 

All Nature knows ! 



90 



Con0ummation 



^^g|TAND still mj soul and be recharged again! 
^^^ Be animated with the heavenly fire 
^^^ That flows from the Eternal Source to thee — 
And bids from all earth-bondage to be free — 
Life's purpose known through purified desire. 
The little forms of love come back to me 
And sanctify each act, and call it blest — 
A benediction from the brief unrest ; 
God's way made ours — in final glad refrain. 

Wrong has no place where hearts are purposeful; 
Communing strengthens each the other's need; 
Insight grows keener as the forms recede. 
From out the silence and the void His face 
Comes forth, life's needless turmoil to annul 
And holds the lesser things in chastened grace. 
And from the conflict, forces moral right 
To herald victory — and faith requite! 



91 




aftermati) 

[To Mirza Ali Kuli Kakn, Attache Persian Legation'] 

LL life is but a servitude! 

The rulers of the world are slaves ! 
And labor does but garland graves 
While daylight lingers. Lone and nude — 
Dissolved in shadows of a night — 

The mists of morning find them bare; 
Adorned one moment in the glare 
Of broadest day, then lost to sight. 

Our only friend is Memory! 

Youth lures us on, his bride to-day; 
To-morrow Age commands us stay! 

That sweet-voiced guest of sympathy 
Will sit beside us and will sing 

The songs of yesterday, and dwell 
On glories of the past, and tell 

Of that old time when Mirth was King I 

Will look into our dimming eyes, — 

Recall the friends who joined so free — 
Who shared life's love and revelry 

And passed beyond to other skies. 
Oh, Ghost of Youth ! Hebe divine I 

Old age is not too great a price 
For having once been young. Suffice 

Our cup holds naught of Lethe's wine. 



92 



When time has taken us so far 

That Memory's voice no longer wakes ; 
And Time — tomb-builder, — too, forsakes 

The path we tread in some new star; 
And you and I shall wander through 

Life after life and plane by plane, 
Perchance we'll meet, and memory's reign — 

Wafted through years long passed from view, 

Will rush like rose-scents o'er the wind; 

And we who laughed and sang before 
Will sing together here once more ; 

And so farewell, farewell, fair mind! 

[Greenacre, 1901.] 



93 



[Response to a Friend] 

THORNLESS rose would unprotected be, 
Before the world's cold blasts compelled to 
stand ; 

Shedding its fragrance over earth's broad land — 
God's inborn breath o'er life's immensity — 
Guiding the soul toward its eternity. 

Perchance in other spheres by kindlier hand, 
Where Summer's voices breathe the high command. 
It grew within that world's hushed sanctity. 

Faint influences of pasts, and lives to come, 
Throb inward, through a vain futility 
To leave their impress ; borne resistlessly 

By the swift Light; whirled onward to their doom! 
[Forgetful of the twisted thorn or bloom], 

Guarded by God — in native purity. 



94 




[To Alma Webster Powell] 

VEN as the birds, that herald to the morn 
Each day's approach, each new delight of dawn : 
So you, fair singer, waken in my breast 

A music, sweeter that it comes caressed 

From your fine soul, — your thought that moulds its 
form — 

And sends it forth in strains vibrant and warm; 

A kindred note from the vague world of sound 

That floats in hallowed circles far around 

In mystic charm of vocal silences. 

Sweet singer of the untold melodies ! 



95 



\_To Baroness de Bazus'\ 

WOODLAND njmph came thirsting to the 
spring 
Where once the God of Lore had dipped his 



wing, 
Leaving his impress ; that the passer-by 
Might look and see Love's true reflection lie 
Tranquil, in waters undisturbed and deep, 
Where longing souls might drink, refresh, and keep 
This image in their heart, and deeds and life, 
To quench the thirst of selfishness and strife. 

Love came one day and took me by surprise ; 

I knew him not, in masterly disguise ; 

But oft had dreamed of something near — akin — 

And then grew fearful lest I let him in. 

So, slowly, after years of duty, art 

Came near, to be of life an earnest part. 

In fancy only, as a poet may, 

I'd quell the battlings of that other day; 

But still I long to look within the spring — 

To feed the hungering heart's faint whispering — 

Where is the nymph? the dancing woodland elf? 

I look once more — and only see — myself! 

****** 

And now I know, as one who paid the price. 
That love's true meaning is love's sacrifice! 

96 



n 



Cfte §)f)aDoU)p CbirD 

[To Edwin Markhami 

HEN poets meet 
There comes the mingling of the sweet 
Incense of mind to mind ; replete 



With fancy, imagery, and word 

By sympathetic union stirred 

To life. When two shall — blending — meet 

They image forth a shadowy third ! 

For from this chemistry of thought 

A magic minstrelsy is wrought. 



97 



Petite papillon 




H, belated butterfly ! 
Something in me stirs to sing 
As you spread your yellow wing, 
Floating 'neath the sky; 

Like a breath from out the South 
Into cool November's drought 
Ere you fade and die. 

Holding yet one more day's life 
In that shape where God is rife. 
Nothing more am I! 



[Music by Clarence de Vaux-Boyer.] 

[Mt. Allison University, New Brunswick, November, 1899.] 



98 




Celepatftp 

LONE ! Unbroken silences ! 
Far out across the void to me 
Beyond sense-sight and hearing; free 
From speech's faint influences ; 

Borne on the fine etheric waves 

From battery of mind to mind, 

True as the arrow, to its kind, 
Your life- thought comes and saves. 

Flows like the lighter waves of love 
Sent through this medium of the air — 
Pregnant with purpose, strong to bear — 

The subtle law to prove. 



Who shall acclaim this as the end? 

Or limit here the heart's desire? 

The heavens, with all their finer fire, 
Respond where prayers ascend. 

Behold man's powers multiplied! 
Mind penetrates the fleshly screen 
Where Earth and Essence meet — convene- 

Unite, soul-pacified! 



JAN 15 1913 



f 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




